1. Technical Field
This invention relates to a system for combining electronic mail (email) addresses and/or facsimile telephone numbers into a fax message, so that when received by a server the fax document is processed and transmitted as an email to the email addresses or as a fax to the telephone numbers of the intended fax recipients, or both. This allows the user to send faxes and emails from a conventional fax machine without necessarily having a computer, local area network (LAN) or Internet connection on site.
2. Background Art
Facsimile (fax) devices are popular mechanisms for the transmission of text and graphics. They are relatively easy to use and inexpensive to purchase, and transmission by fax machine is fast and cost effective. In addition, fax machines can transmit over ordinary telephone lines without the need for any special service. Moreover, the paper input and output of most fax machines appeals to those who prefer paper copies of documents and are not comfortable with transmitting and receiving information by way of computer.
For those more comfortable with computers, electronic mail (email) is an even more expedient and cost effective way of transmitting information. Documents which are created using a computer, or otherwise imported, can be transmitted, received and reviewed without generation of a paper copy if compatible viewing software is available. The increasing use of wide area networks (WANs) such as the Internet, makes email even more useful by allowing simultaneous transmission of data to a much wider group of recipients. However, unlike facsimile machines that can send faxes directly over the telephone lines, an email user must generally pay for an Internet service provider to provide an email mail box and email capability, or invest in expensive computer equipment and server software to create a comparable on-site capability.
Traditionally, facsimile devices and electronic mail devices have for the most part been thought of as separate, with facsimile type communication being performed by a specialized fax machine and email communications being performed by a general purpose desktop computer equipped with a modem and/or a connection to the Internet. However computers, when configured appropriately with a fax/data modem which receives and transmits in accordance with both facsimile and data communications protocols, can transmit and receive documents in accordance with a fax or email protocol. The faxes can be sent from the computer over the telephone lines without an Internet connection, however such a connection is still required to send emails. Recently, it has even been proposed to send emails via a facsimile machine. But, again, an Internet connection is required.
Fax machines have also been used to send encrypted data. However, to send an encrypted fax to a recipient, both the sender and recipient have needed specialized fax machines employing special encryption methods. These fax machines have been prohibitively expensive and very slow in transferring data. Sending encrypted email via a computer has also been difficult in the past. Typically, both the sending computer and the receiving computer must have compatible, specialized software in order to encrypt and decipher the email.
Thus, there is a need for an improved system and process that allows a user to send faxes and emails, or both, from a fax machine or a personal computer, without the need for a LAN or an Internet connection on site. Additionally, this improved system should allow the sender to send either faxes or emails, or both, to one or several recipients. This system would allow the same message to be sent to various recipients whether or not they have fax and email capabilities, as long as they have one or the other. Furthermore, this improved system should allow the sender to send messages in a secure, encrypted format to a recipient without the need for an expensive secure fax machine or pre-existing specialized software at the receiving end. Such an improved system would provide major advancements in functionality and practicality over the present technology.
The present invention overcomes the common problems and disadvantages of prior fax and electronic mail systems with a system and process that allows faxes and emails to be sent from a fax machine or computer without the need for an Internet connection. This preferred system and process includes a fax device, which can be a fax machine, or a PC equipped with a fax modem and scanner. The fax device communicates with a server which preferably consists of a PC or other computer, or a grouping of computers. The server responds to requests and commands from the transmitting fax device. Specifically, the server receives the transmission from the fax device and decodes the data to determine whether or not to forward the message as an email or fax to intended recipients.
Specifically, specialized data, which is based on data entered into the sending fax device by the user, is transferred from this fax device to the server in the fax transmission. In the preferred embodiment, the fax device should be able to support fax BFT capabilities. This capability will allow various data demarcated by tags to be entered into the message that is transmitted from the fax device to the server. Such tagged data would at a minimum include an email address or addresses. Additionally, tags could be added to include an identification code for identifying the sending fax device, fax number(s), the sender""s reply email address and/or an indicator as to whether the message data is encrypted or not.
In operation, the server strips away the tags, deciphers the tagged data and forwards the message data to the appropriate fax or email recipients, or otherwise acts on the transmission based on the information contained in the tags. However, even if the sending fax device does not support BFT format, the server could employ the use of fax data transmitted in another form to implement the same scheme of extracting data from the fax transmission, deciphering it and then forwarding the appropriate emails or faxes to the intended recipient(s) or otherwise acting on the fax transmission. For example, a standard fax machine which uses headers might include the above tag data in the form of fields included in the fax header data.
A user wishing to transmit a document to the server to have it forwarded via fax or email, would place the document in the fax device scanner and enter one or more destination identifiers into the fax device keyboard or otherwise recall these identifiers from the fax device""s memory. The destination identifier(s) would either take the form of a phone number, or an email address, or both, depending on where and how the sender wishes the document to go. Alternatively, the server may contain one or more memory locations containing listings of email addresses or fax telephone numbers, such as for example in the form of a mailing list. In such a case, the sending fax can elect to send emails or faxes to all recipients stored in such a server repository by providing an indicator in the fax transmission which designates the appropriate memory location for the desired listing resident in the server.
The sender could also enter other pertinent information. For example, the sender could enter information identifying the fax machine. This information is used to determine if the sender is authorized to use the server. The sender could also enter a password to invoke an encryption feature. This password tells the fax device to scramble the data to be scanned for transmission purposes. The password is not provided in the fax transmission so that even the server cannot xe2x80x9creadxe2x80x9d the message data. The person receiving the data would already have been given the password needed to decode the email. Still further, the sender could enter a reply email address. This reply address could be provided to the recipient of the original email transmission for use in sending email transmission (e.g. a reply) back to the sender.
The transmission process begins with the user (or sender) pressing a command button of the fax device or in some other way initiating the transmission. For example, the user could enter the telephone number of the server or select the server number from one or more preprogrammed telephone numbers previously stored in the memory of the facsimile device. The fax device scans the document constituting the message data and reads information entered/indicated by the user or stored in fax device""s memory. Next the fax machine packages the user-specified and other standard formatting data as needed with the message data. The transfer process continues with the fax device initiating a handshake with the server. Once the fax device and the server have established communications, the fax device initiates a file transfer, preferably a BFT file transfer, of the data to the server. The server receives the fax transmission and then strips the user-specified information and standard fax formatting data from the fax transmission leaving only the message data. The user-specified information is then checked to ensure the sending fax device is authorized to use the server. This is accomplished by finding the appropriate tag in the transmitted data that is associated with the sending fax""s identification code and then comparing this identification information to a listing of authorized users stored in a memory location in the server. If the server determines that the fax device is not authorized to use the server, it discards any received data. If, however, the fax device is authorized to use the server, the server finds the destination identifier(s) and other data resident in the fax transmission. In the case of the destination identifiers, if the server finds fax numbers, or an indicator pointing to a repository in server memory where fax telephone numbers reside, then it simply adds standard fax formatting information and faxes the message data to the specified fax numbers (or fax number if there is only one). Next, if the server finds email addresses, or an indicator pointing to a server repository where the addresses reside, it applies a standard email header and transmits the message data, preferably as a MIME encoded attachment to the header of the email transmission (or email transmissions if there is more than one email address).
If the user-specified information includes a reply email address belonging to a sender of the message data, then it can be extracted and provided to the recipient(s) of the aforementioned email transmission. The sender""s reply email address can be provided by the server either including it in a xe2x80x9cfromxe2x80x9d field of the email header or inserting it in the message data, or both.
The server can also determine whether email has ever been sent to the intended recipient before. To this end, the server stores the email addresses of all previous recipients in one of its repositories. If the server determines that it is the first time that email has ever been sent to a recipient then the server sends the appropriate viewer needed to view the message data. The server may also send the viewer along with a message telling the recipient to use this viewer if the recipient cannot open the email. Further, the server may also send a message telling the recipient that if they cannot read the email with the attached viewer to provide information about the system they are using back to the server. If the recipient sends information about their system to the server, the server first determines whether the data was encrypted. This is accomplished by finding the tag in the fax transmission that indicates whether the message data is encrypted. If the server determines that the data was encrypted, then the server sends a message to the recipient telling them to contact the original sender. If the server determines that the data was not encrypted, then it sends the message data back to the intended recipient in a format compatible with the recipient""s system.